The Importance of Being Ernest Flashcards
Algernon to Jack after Jack has explained why he created Ernest (Act 1)
“The truth is rarely pure and never simple” (7)
Algernon to Jack while discussing Algernon’s disdain for marriage and his preference for courting (Act 1)
“Divorces are made in heaven” (3)
Lady Bracknell chastising Algernon (Act 3)
“Never speak disrespectfully of society Algernon. Only people who can’t get into it do that.” (60)
Algernon to Lane on his servants (Act 1)
“Really, if the lower orders don’t set us a good example what on earth is the point of them?” (2)
Gwendolen to Jack on her devotion to him (Act 3)
“If you are not too long, I will wait here for you all my life.” (65)
Lady Bracknell to Algernon on the best music for a dinner party (Act 1)
“German sounds a thoroughly respectable language” (12)
Gwendolen to Jack on why she loves him (Act 1)
“My ideal has always been to love some one of the name Ernest.” (13)
Gwendolen to Jack after Lady Bracknell has refused their engagement (Act 1)
“The old-fashioned respect for the young is fast dying out.” (22)
Algernon to Jack after asking if he can have dinner with him (Act 1)
“I hate people who are not serious about meals. It is so shallow of them.” (9)
Cecily to Miss Prism when they are discussing their lesson (Act 2)
“But I don’t like German … I look quite plain after my German lesson.” (25)
Lady Bracknell to Jack while interrogating him on his family background (Act 1)
“To lose one parent, Mr Worthing, may be regarded as misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.” (17)
Jack predicts the relationship between Gwen and Cecily and Algy replies - foreshadowing (Act 1)
“Half an hour after they have met, they will be calling each other sister.”
“Women only do that when they have called each other a lot of other things first.”
